PyeongChang 2018. Stories To Watch.
Short Track Speed Skating.
Short track speed skating debuted as
a medal sport at the Olympics in 1992, but its origins date
back to the 1920s, when so-called pack-style skating,
with its chaos, collisions and unpredictability,
made it a fan favourite on ovals,
and in the tiny confines of arenas.
In PyeongChang, there will be four races
for both men and women in short track speed skating.
Three individual races -
500 metres, 1,000 metres, and the 1,500m.
The relay for men is 5,000 metres, 45 laps.
And for women the relay is 3,000 metres,
or 27 laps around the rink.
In PyeongChang, events will take place
at the Gangneung Ice Arena,
which will also be the venue for figure skating.
The arena will hold two rinks,
one for training and one for competition.
Seating capacity in the arena will be 12,000.
Most short track athletes are fleet of foot.
One gold medallist used that skill to win the TV programme
Dancing With The Stars.
Do you know whom?
The answer later.
(SJINKIE KNEGT - NETHERLANDS)
Sjinkie Knegt has been leading the Dutch push
into short track speed skating.
Always a force in long track races,
the Netherlands had never won an Olympic short track medal
before Sjinkie took bronze in 2014.
The next year, he won both European
and world overall titles as well,
then captured three more golds
at the World Championships in 2017.
When Sjinkie was first asked to try short track speed skating
while attending a camp for long track skaters at the age of ten
he didn't know what it was.
He switched to short track speed skating after one lesson.
Sjinkie also has a degree in mechanical engineering.
(OLYMPIC MEDALS)
Which countries lead the all-time medal table?
In fourth, the United States with four.
Canada slipped into third place after the last Games,
thanks to China, in second, with nine golds,
and host nation Republic of Korea with 21 golds.
(ELISE CHRISTIE - GREAT BRITAIN)
Elise Christie. With 12 career medals at World Championships,
Elise Christie is looking for her first Olympic medal
after disappointment in Sochi,
where she was disqualified in two of her races.
Elise was born in Scotland,
but has been living in the short track hub of Nottingham
since she was 15 in order to train full-time.
Elise's mother, Angela, often attends her races,
but heads for the hallway when her daughter skates,
because she's too nervous to watch.
Elise likes to change her hair colour
and has dyed her hair half a dozen different colours
before competitions.
One colour she says she won't use
until she wins a race at the Games
is gold.
(SHIM SUK-HEE & CHOI MIN-JEONG - REPUBLIC OF KOREA)
The Republic of Korea has won 26 Winter Olympic gold medals,
all in ice events,
none on the snow.
21 of those have come in short track.
Shim Suk-hee won three medals at her Olympics debut in Sochi.
Shim hails from Gangneung,
where the short-track events will take place.
She changed the last four digits of her mobile number
to 2-0-1-8.
And Choi Min-jeong
is a two-time overall world champion.
At 175 centimetres,
Shim is more fluid and durable,
Choi more dynamic and explosive.
(DID YOU KNOW?)
If laid out end to end,
a short track oval would be one metre longer
than the summer Olympic event the 110-metre hurdles.
(JR CELSKI - USA)
JR Celski has won three Olympic medals,
but is looking for his first gold in PyeongChang.
JR is the son of a Polish father and a Filipino mother.
His initials stand for John Robert.
Early in his career,
Celski recovered from a competition injury to his leg
that required 60 stitches.
Both JR and his father, Bob,
won national inline skating championships
for their age groups.
JR was also a National Merit Scholar as a teenager.
He missed the minimum age requirement
for the 2006 Olympics by 17 days.
(SANDOR LIU SHAOLIN - HUNGARY)
Sandor Liu Shaolin was born to a Chinese father
and Hungarian mother in Budapest.
His younger brother was his team-mate
at the World Championships in 2016.
Both brothers began their sports careers in swimming,
but looked for alternative ideas
when they kept catching colds at the pool.
The two brothers trained in China for a year,
but failed to produce good results
until they returned to Hungary.
Sandor is in a relationship with British skater
Elise Christie.
(CHARLES HAMELIN - CANADA)
Charles Hamelin comes from Canada's first family
of short track speed skaters.
His younger brother, Francois,
was a team-mate at three Olympic Games.
Their father, Yves,
is the team's national programme director.
Charles has won four Olympic medals, including three golds,
to go with 35 World Championship medals.
Charles and his girlfriend, Marianne St-Gelais,
were both named in Hello Canada's
50 Most Beautiful Canadians list
before their first Olympics in 2010.
The answer to our earlier question?
The Olympic gold medallist who also earned victory
on Dancing With The Stars
was Apolo Anton Ohno.
Short track's calendar in Korea
starts with the men's 1,500 metre final,
then the women's 500.
Four days later, the women's 1,500 metre,
and the men's 1,000.
The final days of the games hold the remaining events,
including the relays.
The Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang are set
to begin February 9th.
Fill your knowledge tank
by watching other episodes on Olympic Channel.